damned_institute | Day 65: Intercom, Evening

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Day 65: Intercom, Evening

As some of the clouds from earlier began to clear, the intercom jingle sounded over the intercom once again.

"Hello, patients!" came the Head Doctor's cheery voice. "I hope you're all feeling fresh and clean this evening! To top it all off, we've prepared a scrumptious herb chicken dinner for you to eat before bed. Of course, we have vegetarian options available, so please don't hesitate to ask the nurse if you're interested in that.

Also, since we have the pleasure of welcoming a few new patients into our family, some of you will be receiving new roommates. Let's do our best to give them a nice, big Landel's Institute welcome, shall we?"

The Head Doctor gave a friendly chuckle. "Well, anyway, enjoy your dinner!"

With that, the intercom shut off.

[Note: All dinner threads are posted in response to this entry. Be sure to check the Roommate Assignments if you're not sure what room/roommate your character has! Thanks.]

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There was little learned, in the end--at least, not what Albedo wished to, and not for the price he'd like to pay. Nigredo had accepted things, as much as he was want to, and Albedo didn't know if he was supposed to feel strange that it seemed the youngest was becoming outwardly more accepting of murders. Of the evils that men do. Certainly, it was the youngest with the most blood on his hands--literally, at least--but it was always Albedo whose priorities lay not with moral impulses, but familial ties.

Such as things were. He was going out hunting tonight, with the sole goal of killing at least one patient. To that end, he passed on dinner, and once again, as he had not in a while, took to his closet, to take inventory of his weapons. The two shotguns were removed, and he sat down on the floor and began to take them apart to look things over. His two hunting knives were near him, and like before, he took no note of his roommate.

At the end of the day, Sasuke had been the one to learn more than he'd bargained for: Lee's news at lunch had been shocking enough that he'd lashed out at his nurse with every ounce of contained vitriol he had, scaring away her further attempts to find him 'friends' so effectively that he was almost pleased. He might have been were it not for the enduring fog of fury that still lingered.

He was not merely missing a war: he was missing his own answers, truths he'd sacrificed a team and a village and a clan history's worth of loyalty for that he wasn't even there to learn. When his nurse left him with the occasional clack and rustle of his roommate Sasuke whirled into action, dinner ignored, pulling his sword from its usual hiding place and testing the blade for sharpness with the side of a finger.

It drew blood: but it was dull.

There were aspects to be noted--testing a weapon was one of them. There were two options. One, that, like Albedo, his roommate had something to accomplish tonight. The other, also like Albedo, was that having weapons available in this place was something to keep attention on. The boy's eyes slanted to the other as he tested it, acknowledging the same point the other had-- Useful, but duller. Like Albedo's own blade, buried in the back of the closet. When given the choice of guns or swords, Albedo would rather strangle the life from another, but guns he had greater experience in at least.

Perhaps it was because of that notice, that Albedo started seeing similarities where he hadn't thought to look before. He blinked, then narrowed his eyes in thought. A male of medium height, with dark hair and eyes, but whitish pupils. Something that could be vague, but in a place like this, it wasn't as common.

This annoyed him somehow.

The boy stood, then leaned down to root through the pack near his feet, finally coming up with the stone sharpener he had procured earlier on. Sighing lightly, he crossed the room, and stopped a few feet off, holding out the item. "It might be more useful with this," he gave dryly, though for all intents and purposes, the offer was genuine.

Sasuke discounted the movement on the other side of the room up until the footsteps headed toward him with deliberate intention -- only then did he straighten away from the weapon he was inspecting by touch alone, grip on the hilt tightening just in case his roommate decided to break their long silence with belligerence. Young as the boy sounded, Sasuke had no illusions about the kinds of people Landel gathered.

It came as a surprise, then, when instead there was clearly something being offered to him. Sasuke narrowed his gaze at the other patient (or less at than in general) and reached out with as much confidence as he could summon when he only had the rustle of shirt material to guide him.

Whether by sheer luck or not, his hand landed on a slender box, closing and lifting it away without any lessening in his frown. With care, Sasuke stabbed his sword into his mattress so that the hilt remained upright and in easy access, then smoothed fingers over the item until he found the edge to lift the lid away. Underneath it was --

Rough stone. A sharpener.

"... yes," he answered, delayed and carefully pronounced. What was the purpose in opening conversation now? "A sharper weapon strikes with more accuracy."

It was at least amusing enough to see this one taken back, if not truly surprised. Albedo shrugged exaggeratedly, and half spun to the side, idly looking at the wall. "Use it, then. I don't have a need for it tonight." As if he wasn't concerned at all, with his roommate, or a better weapon in his hands.

And why should he be? Albedo had driven his sword into his own stomach--why would he need to fear another's? Besides. It remained. There was something more of import here. Something a bit more interesting to consider. "You're someone who's comfortable fighting," he started again, a question and a statement. The weapon hadn't missed the notice of the other's wariness as Albedo had approached. "You wouldn't have happened to have replied to a notice on the bulletin board a few days prior, would you?"

Motivations aside, Sasuke had spent too many weeks in the Institute to look a gift horse too deeply in the mouth: unless this were some kind of special whetstone designed to destroy a blade rather than sharpening it, it was probably fine. At most, Albedo probably just wanted something in return.

That something became marginally clearer with the boy's next statement, Sasuke slotting a nod of agreement in between angling his sword and beginning to draw the rough stone along the blade. It was an action and angle he knew better than the back of his own hand, the smooth shhhnk of refining metal familiar and calming.

"A notice," he repeated when the question was posed, wracking his memory for -- ah. "Regarding fighting? Yes."

...Of course. Of course, one of the people who replied, and the only one Albedo could now find, was his dear and quiet roommate, the ever-friendly person who had been in this place longer than Albedo. Of course fate would have it this way.

He leaned his weight backward, sighing once. "Regarding a request for someone to teach hand-to-hand combat. And if you're the one I believe replied, you wished for information." He watched the other sharpen the blade, caring nothing for what his roommate would use it on. "I put up the notice. I need my younger brother to learn what he can."

Sometimes Sasuke had to wonder if perhaps the Institute had a hand in even the more mundane twists of their existence. Running into Naruto in the worst way on the bus. Pairing him with a mute man for a discussion about feelings. Linking his offer -- and the hope for fruitful alliance with it -- to the roommate he'd barely spoken to since the thinly-veiled hostilities of the first night Albedo had been moved in.

Discovering that the search was for a younger brother. Albedo had said he could pay anything: and there were no memories that were stirred there, Sasuke decided, and turned his sword over to begin work on the other side, movements sure, habitual.

"What experience does he currently have?" Any existing knowledge of styles, or at least how to avoid blows and take falls, could be useful.

There was no fighting the fact. That was well-enough-- Albedo had no wanting to bicker over the details, and would rather a straight-forward transaction. The remaining tension slipped out of him; he shrugged languidly.

"Only very basic hand-to-hand. Our unit--" Because that was simpler than anything else. "--Specialized in firearms and alternate weaponry, so there was no need to excel further in that. But here is a different story."

Very basic -- and if Albedo was concerned enough about that very basic to be applying to strangers in the Institute to improve it, Sasuke could probably safely assume the emphasis was more on very than basic. Fortunately, although Sasuke had no illusions about his own qualifications as a particularly tender teacher, he had a precise enough memory to know how he himself had been taught.

Raised to work in teams divided by efficacy, Sasuke didn't think to question what precisely his roommate meant by unit: of more interest was the term firearms, still new and somewhat unclear to him, and the idea of weaponry that was alternate to those. That was perhaps a line of inquiry worth pursuing in time.

"I assume that what training that he has had has been defensive in nature?" That hopefully meant that this as-yet unknown brother knew how to take a fall. Any talent or skill beyond that were things Sasuke would need to learn through his own observation.

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Day 65: Intercom, Evening

M58 (alfredo sauce)

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